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Kalandre
Kalandre is the most enigmatic character of the French comic-book series Les Légendaires (The Legendaries), featured prominently in its prequel Les Légendaires : Origines (The Legendaries: Origins), along with her servants the Dynaméïs. Though she first appears as a mysterious and ambiguous figure, it is revealed late in the story that she is in fact one of the series' two primary antagonists. While Darkhell is the titular Legendaries' foremost enemy, linked to many threats they would face, Kalandre is the one who set up the entire story, manipulating everything and everyone (up to Anathos himself) from behind the scenes. Appearance Kalandre looks like a tall woman, wearing a long, flowing, blue and orange feathered cape, held by two shoulder pads. (It appears that her cape is similar to the one her mother used to wear.) Until very late in the story, she wears a helmet with a while veil hiding the upper-half of her face. When she first appears, as well as in Origins, she wears while, blue and green robes with blue sleeves and a metallic ornament. However, when she takes the front stage as the final villain confronted by the Legendaries, she wears lavish, ornate, white, orange and green robes, with golden trimmings and white sleeves. The first sign that Kalandre is no mere mortal is her purplish-white skin. (It is later revealed that half her skin is white and the other half is sky blue.) Under her helmet, she conceals long black hair, pointed horizontal ears, and three pupiless eyes, red with yellow irises. And when she reveals her true, semi-divine form near the end, she appears almost naked, keeping her white and blue skin and three eyes, wearing maroon and gold shoulder pads and leg protectors, in addition to her cape. Background Kalandre and her twin brother Astérion were born in the Elven Dimension over 5000 years before the start of the story. In a time when the gods roamed the world of Alysia, they were the children of the God King of Alysia and his high-priestess, Kamila. Kalandre remembers his father as cold and uncaring, never acknowleding them in any way. One day, the gods left Alysia never to return, and settled in a different dimension, for a reason never explained. They left behind the six Divine Stones they used to shape the universe, under the care of their servant: the Guardian. Furious at the gods for abandoning them (probably to suffer many problems), the elven population destroyed everything related to the gods and attempted to murder Kalandre and Astérion. Their mother tried to protect them, but got killed before their very eyes, and they only owed their lives to Astérion awakening his divine powers. Kalandre and Astérion spent years roaming the Elven World, fleeing from the population, who likely slaughtered all the demi-gods like them. One fated day they caught up with them and cast a spell severing Astérion's soul in three parts, killing him. This second trauma awoke Kalandre's own divine power, and she teleported away seconds before the elves could attack her. Now free to roam the world, Kalandre began putting into motion a plot to resurrect her brother, and get revenge against both the gods who abandonned her and the population who persecuted her. Over the millennia, she kept track of the people bearing the fragments of Astérion's soul and made pacts with them: In exchange for a golden weapon with great magical powers, they would resurrect to serve her after death. She spent the following millennia manipulating everything and everyone, without the slightest care for the many lives she ruined, driven solely by her blinding hatred and her petty obsession with revenge. Powers and Abilities Being of divine blood, Kalandre is absolutely immune to any kind of magic. Not even spells cast by characters mightier than she is nor divine magic can phase her. Moreover, she can cancel magic affecting someone at contact, as seen when she cancels the possession of a mortal by a god, but only temporarily. Even more, she can absorb magic energy and as she puts it "make it her own", likely to increase her own power. Kalandre's primary power is her ability to see the future with her third eye. She can see anyone's future but her own, and since she spent millennia watching things to come, she knows about virtually everything about anyone and knows what will happen at any given time. It can be guessed that she can see all possible futures, given that she goes to great lenghts to shape people's destiny the way she wants to. Finally, Kalandre wields immense magic powers, although the author Patrick Sobral has stated that she is less powerful than the likes of Anathos, Darkhell, Abyss and Skroa. She uses a different kind of magic than the other spellcasters of the series (probably divine magic), as her spells manifest through glowing circles of energy. She can create orange circles that enable her and anyone and anything she wishes to float in the air. She can also resurrect people with whom she made pacts, and give them glowing orange halos, that prevent them from aging and influence their consciousness to make them blindly devoted to her, no matter what order she gives. Kalandre also proves able to create magical artifacts, namely the four Golden Weapons she gave to the Dynaméïs and the artificial body she gave to one of them. She can also teleport herself and other people wherever she wants, and can make things levitate, among others. Personality During her first apparitions, Kalandre appeared as someone poised, quiet and collected, always speaking politely, be it to Anathos or the Legendaries. Although she is presented right from the start as someone ominous, with a yet unexplained influence over the situation, she first seems to work towards helping, and even saving, the Legendaries. Judging from her words back then, it first appears that she knows how destiny will unfold and tries to enforce it, while desiring to save Alysia. Also, she appears to care a great deal for the Dynaméïs: congratulating them, listening to their objections and reassuring Danaël about the wellbeing of his former comrades... However, the more we learn about her, the clearer her sinister side becomes. Not only is she willing to perform morally dubious, if not needlessly cruel, actions; but she appears to enjoy playing people then explaining to them how she did. However, her actions serve to shape the soon-to-become Legendaries into better persons, and she still seems to work towards a noble goal. Whether she is following destiny no matter the cost, ready for the worst to accomplish a noble action, or only serving her interests remains unclear until her Story Arc though... What is pretty clear right from the start, is that Kalandre is a highly skilled manipulator. She knows full well which buttons to push to make people do what she wants, and how to orchestrate the events following her designs. Though knowing the future helps her greatly in her schemes. Also, she is as skilled in talking people into helping her, be it by promising to help them, by striking bargains, or simply by convincing them with words alone. In the end, it is revealed that under her poised and generous facade lies a monster of selfishness and bitterness of the worst kind. She is in fact callous, arrogant, self-righteous, petty and hateful. Her regal attitude only stems from her control of the situation. She feels superior to those whose destinies she influences, and cannot stand anything that she could not predict or that could weaken her control over the situation. All her great speeches about destiny, saving the world and even her caring about her subordinates are but a pretense. As soon as she stops needing someone, she disposes of them without second thoughts, even the Dynaméïs who served her faithfully for centuries. In the same way, she does not care the slightest for the thousand people she plans to sacrifice, or all the lives she trampled only for putting what she would need in their hands for her to take. Even the horrible tragedies she suffered are not enough to justify or even explain her loathsome actions. Kalandre is blinded with rage against the gods and is obsessed about paying them back. She staunchly loathes them for abandonning the world (and mostly her) for no reason, and for indirectly causing the death of her beloved family. Ironically, she is no better than them, if not worse, and when she tries to justify her crimes by blaming the gods for abandoning Alysia, it is quite clear that she harmed the world more than they ever did. Finally, she longs to resurrect her brother, whom she loves more than it is healthy, prompting Danaël to half-jokingly ask whether they are brother and sister or something more. To cut a long story short, she is one of the most despicable villains of the series, and considering how disgusting some are, that is saying something. ''The Legendaries: Origins'' Danaël Kalandre first appears when Danaël is looking forlornly at a picture of his late father, who like him was part of the elite knights known as the Silver Falcons. Acting as she just noticed his uneasiness, she offers a friendly conversation, in which he confides his disgust at being used in political intrigues instead of serving people. She advises him to look for other ways to fulfill his dream before vanishing. She later appears to save Danaël's life as he is sinking underwater, grievously wounded by Darkhell's enforcer Raptor the Green Shadow. She heals him and gets him out of the water without his knowledge, enabling him to defeat Raptor and save Princess Jadina. Jadina The story reveals that Kalandre was behind Jadina's birth, as she secretly arranged the deal between Darkhell and the Queen of Orchidia, who cannot have children, to make her bear an heir without conception. All this without them knowing anything. Kalandre appears before Jadina's cruel aunt Countess Invidia. As Invidia immediately attacks her, she withstands her energy blasts before taking her magic ring, and offers to kill Jadina for her, so that Invidia's son Kasino would become the sole heir to the throne of Orchidia. She later absorbs the magic fuelling the force-fieds holding the cages in the zoo, just when Jadina is visiting it. As such, the beasts break free and attack the population, and Jadina resolves to protect them. As Kasino, who had a change of heart and came to her rescue, gets in danger, Jadina steps in to save him, proving worthy the magic Eagle Staff, the Royal Artifact which choses the rightful heir. Kalandre appears before Invidia and reveals that not only she feigned the attempt on Jadina's life to make her worthy of the Eagle Staff, but that she framed her "accomplice" by leaving her ring on the scene of crime, to be found by the investigators. And to add insult to injury, she set up the accident in which her son lost an eye year ago, to make Invidia resent her niece even more. Outraged, Invidia throws herself at Kalandre and unveils her face, only to be so horrified by her eyes that she steps back, falls off the balcony where she stood, and plummets to her doom. (Though Kalandre migh have pushed Invidia over the railing herself.) Gryf After the young jaguarian pince Anoth Cha left Jaguarys (the kingdom of his people of feline beast-men) to find a cure for his dying father, and got lost in the snowy mountains, he gets captured by slave-drivers. (Jaguarians are prized slaves in this setting.) It appears that it was Kalandre who led the slave-drivers to him. Now amnesiac, Anoth Cha is bought by Lord Menthos, a cruel man who makes monslaves (slave monsters) fight to the death in clandestine arenas. Lord Menthos' prized monslave Samaël the Indomitable takes the young jaguarian under his wing and names him Gryfenfer. (A pun on "griffe en fer", French for "iron claw".) After Gryfenfer is defeated during his first battle, Samaël obtains that Menthos spare his life in exchange for him challenging the mightiest monslave there is: Dasyatis the Venomous, also known as the Silent Death. Alas, she crushes him and leaves him for dead, his body his thrown into the pit of dead monslaves. Gryf then tells his master that he will become the fiercest battler of the arena for him, if he can one day arrange a fight between him and Dasyatis. Years later, Kalandre sends the Dynaméïs Galatée to free Gryfenfer and reveal to him that Lord Menthos learnt that Dasyatis was killed by Darkhell (in fact the Dark Sorcerer recruited her). This means that he had no intention of keeping his promise and planned to keep gaining fortunes from his monslave's battles. Gryfenfer escapes and heads to the mountains, only to be found by the Night Hunters: elite warriors who track down and kill the escaped monslaves. It is then revealed that Samaël is among them. Indeed, Kalandre guided the Night Hunters into the pit, so that they would save Samaël and make him one of them. But Dasyatis' venom drove him mad and he now wants to kill Gryfenfer, whom he holds responsible for his fate. Heartbroken, Gryfenfer has no other choice that fight his former "brother", apparently to the death. Shimy After the elf Shimy graduates from the Elementary School, where she learnt to fuse with the elements to control them, she was to receive the blessing of the spirits to become the Elementary Elf. However, Kalandre had told the God of Evil Anathos that Shimy would make a fine host when he would resurrect, prompting him to brand her with his mark. Razzia It is already known that during his childhood, Razzia's hometown was destroyed by Darkhell's armies, leaving evidences incriminating the Army of the Thousand Wolves. This would lead Razzia to become a freakishly strong barbarian warrior, who would destroy the Thousand Wolves and eventually become Darkhell's right-hand-man Korbo the Red Shadow. He would also become the lover of Darkhell's daughter Ténébris. However, he eventually learnt the truth and swore to kill the Dark Sorcerer to atone for his crimes. What was in fact Kalandre's doing remain to be seen. ''The Legendaries'' Kalandre herself only appears late in the story, but it is ultimately revealed that she was the one who destroyed the Stone of Jovenia during the final battle between the Legendaries and Darkhell, turning everyone in Alysia into children. It is also revealed that she is caused Jadina to fall to her death into the mines of her country after the return of the God Anathos. Finding Jadina's corpse prompted the sentient Gamera Tree to resurrect her as a half-human half-plant hybrid. The Anathos Cycle Kalandre only appears during the final battle between the Legendaries and Anathos, who reincarnated himself by possessing Danaël. Anathos tells Dark Jadina, leader of his Hellions, that he knows that the Legendaries are leading him into a trap and will attempt to storm his castle, but that he plans to ambush them with his army. A mysterious adult woman framed in shadow then appears, withstanding Dark Jadina's powerful blast of magic. She tells Anathos to face the Legendaries himself, so as to blow off the "last light of hope in Alysia", and the God of Evil follows this prophecy-like advice. When the Legendaries are facing the Hellions, Kalandre is seen floating over Anathos' castle, mentioning the prophecy about the end of the world. She ominously speaks about the scenario that she wrote, and states that she will soon enter the fray herself. Later, as a wounded Anathos is about to destroy Alysia with a gargantuarian sphere of destruction, Kalandre appears out of nowhere and grabs his arm, vanishing the sphere, dispelling his evil power and restoring Danaël's body to normal. As the Legendaries are preparing to fight, she reassures them and tells them Anathos is their only enemy. Jadina rushes towards what seems to be Danaël, but Kalandre tells her that this is still Anathos, who just reverted to Danaël's aspect due to the loss of his power. She unseals Danaël's golden sword and tells the Legendaries that they must use it to kill Anathos, whom she cannot hold for long. As Jadina prepares to stab Anathos, the God of Evil skillfully pretends to be Danaël, begging Jadina not to believe Kalandre. This proves to be his undoing however, as Jadina knows full well that the real Danaël would have asked to die. Grief-struck, she stabs Anathos through the heart and kills him... alongside his unfortunate host. Later, Kalandre appears near Danaël's grave and resurrects him, while Galatée tells him that Kalandre and the Dynaméïs are his new family. After the Crisis in Orchidia Kalandre only appears at the end of the Story Arc, reassuring Danaël about his former comrades' well-being. She tells him to focus on the path that destiny designed for him. She states that Alysia will soon face a threat that could destroy it, and that both the Dynaméïs and the Legendaries will have a role to play to prevent it. Kalandre's exodus Two years have passed since Anathos' demise. The Legendaries are called by the King of Larbos, who tells them that everyone leaving near Darkhell's former domain is killed by an unknown poison. A poison that seems to slowly spread across the world, and that is apparently due to the Jovenia Effect, which turned everyone into a child. He then tells them about a cult led by Kalandre, the Sons of Astérion, who pretends that she was sent by the gods to guide her followers to the god's dimention, where she will be able to cure them of the Jovenia Effect. Kalandre has gathered hundreds, if not thousands, of followers, and is asking for the Legendaries' help. The King orders the Legendaries to follow Kalandre and to watch her, for he suspects her of having a more sinister agenda that she claims. He also orders Ikaël, Danaël's older brother, to watch them all, for he knows that Danaël was resurrected and wonders how the Legendaries will react. The Legendaries instantly recognize Kalandre as the mysterious woman who helped them kill Anathos. However, they (and especially Jadina) are very displeased to learn that Danaël was resurrected for two years and never bothered contacting them. Kalandre and Danaël ask the Legendaries to join them in their exodus, and they comply. Kalandre later speaks to Shimy and gains her trust by temporarily turning her back to an adult at contact, and by promising that she will remove the fragment of Anathos' sword lodged near Gryf's heart, which threatens his life. Kalandre later asks Shimy and Jadina to combine their power to open a way into the sea. Then, they reach the wreckage of the palace of the Guardian, who was killed by Anathos, and Kalandre sends Danaël and Halcyon to fetch the four remaining Divine Stones from the Guardian's corpse. On their way, the Legendaries met the obnoxious and pompous writer Artémus Del Conquistador, who was travelling undersea in his submarine. Artémus starts perstering the Legendaries for the right to write a novel about their adventures, but he panics after foreseeing the death of Ténébris, who is now part of the Legendaries. (Artémus is a descendant of a famous prophet and inherited his power of premonition.) Upon meeting Artémus, whose power of premonition disturbs her own, Kalandre gets a vision that he will cause her death and loses conciousness for several days. Without her to guide them, the Dynaméïs and the Legendaries are left to guide the convey of followers, and have to destroy a dangerous plant-monster that threatens to kill them all. However, Jadina has lent most of her power to Shimy, and the strain of the battles cause her to fall into a coma. When she awakens, Kalandre calls the Dynaméïs and reveals her vision. She who caused death and strife for so many during millennia refuses the very idea of her death, and orders her followers to get rid of Artémus as soon as possible. She reveals her plan of fusing the four Divine Stones into a Divine Weapon with which she could destroy the gods' dimension, sacrificing the Legendaries and her hundreds of followers in the process. However, Ténébris spied on her and attempts to warn her comrades, only to get stopped by Danaël. She blames Danaël for not caring for Jadina, who was his girlfriend, and states that he must chose between Kalandre and the Legendaries, but he is under Kalandre's control and coldy kills her. Truth revealed As the distraught Legendaries discover Ténébris' death, Halcyon and Danaël barge in, stating that Artémus is the murderer and providing a sword with Ténébris' blood as a (tampered) evidence. Razzia then asks to be left alone with Artémus, and they reluctantly comply. (However, Razzia has deduced that Artemus was framed by Kalandre.) Kalandre then teleports her entire convey of followers near Casthell, Darkhell's former hideout. As everyone starts panicking about getting poisoned, Shimy uses her sensing powers to scan the atmosphere and discovers, much to her shock, that there is no trace of poison anywhere. Kalandre then has the Dynaméïs subdue the Legendaries, and reveals that she was the one who poisoned all the victims to put her exodus into motion: an exodus whose only goal was to get the Divine Stones from the Guardian's corpse and to exhaust Jadina, removing the most powerful Legendary as a threat. All her speeches about saving the world were but a pretense, she only cares about destroying the gods and their dimension. She explains that Casthell was built near the gateway to the Divine Dimension, hence the enormous amount of magic power that prompted Darkhell to establish himself here. The gateway is guarded by the garguantuarian monster Kaminodoa. Kalandre then awakes Kaminodoa and sets it loose on her followers, so that devouring them all would distract it long enough for her to reach the Divine Dimension. Kalandre, extracts the Jade Gem that serves as Jadina's core, instantly killing her, and extracts the fragment of Anathos' sword from Gryf's body, grievously wounding him. She then extracts Astérion's remains from the artificial corpse that she built for her follower Asgaroth, sealing his doom in the process, and extracts the three fragments of her brother's soul from Halcyon, Galatée and Danaël (whom she chose as her servants precisely because they bore it). She fuses her brother's soul and remains with the Jade Gem to resurrect him. Then she fuses the fragment of Anathos' sword with the four Divine Stones, to create a Divine Weapon potent enough to destroy the gods' dimension. The two siblings then enter the gateway, without sparing a single glance for the hundreds of people they leave to die. Razzia, Artémus and Ikaël then barge in, thanks to Amy, the demon who serves as Razzia's prosthetic arm, who was able to use the magical traces of Kalandre's teleportation spell to follow her. Shimy creates a gigantic stone golem to fight Kaminodoa, Gryf battles Galatée, Razzia battles Halcyon and Danaël battles Ikaël. Gryf succumbs to his wounds after killing his foe. Halcyon manages to kill Amy who explodes, and Razzia tackles him so that they would both die in the explosion. Shimy uses all her power (and probably the remnant of the power Jadina gave her) to destroy Kaminodoa in a suicide attack. Finally Danaël, fully aware that he does not control his actions, unwillingly kills his brother, who manages to shatter Danaël's halo in his dying breath. Death Now freed from Kalandre's control, Danaël witnesses in horror and heartbreak the corpses of all his friends. The tears he sheds turn Jadina's corpse into a huge tree that connects to the gateway between dimensions. Danaël, followed by a distraught Artémus, rushes in to confront Kalandre and Astérion and put an end to this madness. Kalandre is astonished to see that Danaël has regained his free will, and tries to convince him that the gods are really to blame, but he calls off her self-serving rant. As Astérion keeps blasting Danaël with powerful spheres of destruction, which he withstands, Artémus tries to help by throwing him his Golden Sword. His aim is so bad that he sends the sword right through Kalandre's heart, killing her instantly. In a supreme bout of irony, Kalandre who kept speaking about following destiny but refused the fate she foresaw, dies in the exact same way she predicted. Even more ironic, she who spent five millennia manipulating and trampling everyone's lives is unceremoniously killed in a purely random accident, by a weapon she herself forged. Danaël then gets back his sword and uses it to destroy the Divine weapons and the Divine Stones that are part of it. He knows full well that he and Astérion will die in the resulting explosion, and in his last second of life, turns to Artémus and asks him to write how the Legendaries lived and died. Years later, Artémus' novels about the Legendaries' adventures made him extremely rich and famous. However, it is said that he was the one who defeated Darkhell, Skroa and Anathos (likely Abyss and Eternity as well), and that the Legendaries are but an invention of his. However, it is revealed that his notebook is covered with splinters and fragments of the Divine Stones, hinting that the Stones' destruction led to a new reality, and that he is the only one who remembers the previous one... 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